Princess phone history

By the 1950s, the form and function of the telephone had become mature. Western Electric, the supply arm of the Bell System, realized that there was limited growth potential in making just basic
phones. In 1955, Bartlett Miller in Bell's merchandising department determined that Bell had done a good job providing the customer with what they needed
-- but weren't listening to what they wanted.

The world was changing; convenience and decoration were as important -- or even more important -- than pure utility. People wanted more than just the main phone in the hallway. They wanted a phone that would fit on a bedside table; and they wanted the teenagers out of the hallway, too. Miller realized this potential market and went after it.

In 1956, the design of the Princess phone was turned over to Henry Dreyfuss Associates, which had designed earlier phones for Western Electric, and it would be the last telephone design to be overseen personally by Henry Dreyfuss.

He worked with Bell Labs engineers and Western Electric's Indianapolis Model Shop to create a phone that was lighter and smaller than the standard model. In 1956, Princess prototypes were shown in Richmond and Cleveland. When Western completed design of the Princess, it conducted field trials. Customer comments were highly critical. Western Electric had designed the small, oval-shaped base with
all the internal equipment on the left side. The right side was empty so new
components could be added in the future. The uneven distribution of weight
caused the phone to move around the table when someone tried to dial. She needed
one hand to hold the base in place and the other to dial, while squeezing the
handset between neck and shoulder.

Bell Labs chose to disregard the complaints
and gave Western Electric the green light to manufacture the Princess sets as
designed. Tens of thousands of sets went out to subscribers, and the result was
thousands of disgruntled customers and thousands of calls to phone company
repair service. Because of customer pressure, Western produced a counterweight
to be mounted on the right side of each phone, and repairmen made visits to
retrofit tens of thousands of Princess phones in people's homes. Millions of
dollars were spent because the infallible Bell Laboratories rejected their own
test results.

The Princess phone was the first model
designed from a marketing perspective instead of an engineering perspective. The
Princess was also the first Western Electric phone to have a trademarked model
name instead of just a model number. Model numbers are not as memorable as
names, and numbers can't be trademarked. It's name was chosen from a list of 300
suggestions. The Princess also made history with an internal light bulb to act
as a bedside night light and to aid dialing in the darkness.

The Princess went into production in 1959, and
although radically different in appearance from previous models, the
technology in it was the same.

It was initially available in any standard phone color
except black, which was added in 1963. Legend has it that black was added when
Jackie Kennedy wanted one.

Early Princess phones had some serious deficiencies:

They required an external ringer in a wall-mounted box.

The base was too light, so the phone flopped and fell.

The weight was unevenly distributed, because the network
was on one end of the phone, and the other side was totally empty. This made the Princess phone very prone to scooting around
while the user tried to dial.

The Princess phone thus initially became known as the "three
handed phone," requiring one hand to dial, one hand to hold the handset,
and one hand to hold the phone in place while dialing.

It was very easy to knock the handset off the phone
base. At least one company modified the Princess for use as a car phone, and installed clear plastic "fences" around the ends of the phones to keep the handset from flopping out on rough roads.

The external ringer was later replaced with a single-gong
internal ringer, and the problem with the base moving around while dialing was
partially solved by the addition of a lead weight (later replaced by the M-type
single-gong ringer). Ultimately, the heavier touch-tone models made this problem almost
a total non-issue. However, the problem of knocking the handset off the cradle
always remained, and this caused some people to hate the Princess phone forever.

Despite all these problems and design shortcomings, the
Princess phone remains one of the most beloved telephone designs of all time.

Although some various production changes and tweaks would
occur over the over the years, the basic design remained almost totally
unchanged from 1959 right up through the divestiture of AT&T in 1984. Production
continued after divestiture under the name AT&T Technologies until 1986, when
the Indianapolis Phone Works plant was finally closed, and production moved
offshore. AT&T introduced a new "Signature Princess" series made in Mexico in
1993.

The vast majority of telephones made by Western Electric
were made for the Bell System, although they also made special models without
Bell System markings for independent phone companies. Western Electric also made
some special models of the Princess for businesses and institutions.

Specialized versions of the Princess included models with
message-waiting lights, and two-line operation.

Timeline

1959

Initial release of the rotary model 701B. Uses an
external ringer.

Initial models use a 495A network, which is
circuit-wise identical to the 425B network used in bigger phones. It
was just repackaged into a slightly different form so it would fit in the
Princess housing.

Two different patterns are used on the bottom mats. One
was basically smooth with some bumps around the edges, while the other had a
cross-hatched pattern.

The light used is a screw-base #46-type lamp.

1961

Only the smooth style of bottom mat is now used.

1962

Lead weights are now added to the left side to try to
improve the balance of the set. They were also available for field
installation if customers complained about the phones moving around while
dialing.

1963

Model 701B is replaced with the model 702B. The lead
weight in this new model is replaced with an internal M-type ringer.

The 495A network is replaced with the more compact
4010B network (?)

The screw-base #46-type lamp is replaced with a #259
bayonet-style lamp.(?)

Green, Yellow, Gray, and black are added to the color
choices.

1964

The touch-tone (10 button) model 1702B is introduced.

1967

Ivory and red phones are added.

1968

The 10-button model 1702B is replaced with the 12
button model 2702B.

The bases and handsets on all models made for the Bell
System are now stamped with the words, "Bell System Property, Not For Sale."

1971

Turquoise and Gray are dropped, and clear is added.

1973

Clear is discontinued.

1975

Shift from 4010B network to 4228 network (?)

Shift from hardwired to modular cords (?)

1976

The center cut-out on the bottom mat is enlarged.

1977

The center cut-out on the bottom mat is enlarged yet
again.

Changed the style of date coding. Instead of "mm-yy,"
it is now "yyddd," where yy = year, and ddd = the day of the year.

1979

Shifted from the old rubber-style mats on the bottom to
a new rubber/cork mixture, which is less likely to harden and crack with time.

Shifted from the M-type ringer to the P-type ringer (?)

Shifted to a greatly improved hook switch with a
plastic cover on it (?)

1982 (or '83)

Introduction of for-sale models with "CS" prefix. They
are pretty much identical to the traditional rented models, except that they
lack the "Bell System Property, Not for Sale" markings, and do not have
lights.

1984

Production under the Western Electric name ceases, with
the divestiture of AT&T. Production of customer-owned "CS" models continues a
little bit longer under the "AT&T Technologies" brand.

Color selection changes again

Shifted from metal screws and brass inserts to
self-tapping screws directly into plastic to fasten the housing to the base
(?)

1986

Production of the traditional Western Electric Princess
ceases altogether, as the factory in Indianapolis is closed, and production is
moved overseas.

Late 1990s

Refurbished phones are available in slate
blue, peach and cameo green.

1993

AT&T introduces the "Signature Princess" series, made
in Mexico. It was offered for sale through AT&T Phone Center Stores (which
closed in 1996) and is still available for rent from
QLT Consumer Lease Services,
previously AT&T Consumer Lease
Services, which was not really part of AT&T. Colors include white, ivory, rose pink,
aqua blue, and peach. This model has a modern electret condenser microphone in
its handset, tone/pulse switchable pushbutton keypad lit by a green LED, and a
receiver volume control on the front of the phone. The phone number card is moved from below the
dial to the left end of the phone. With an optional transformer, this
new model's dial will stay lit continuously, for use as a night light.

Princess Model Numbers

701B: Original set without ringer

701D: The D was for message
waiting lamp

702BM: The 2 designates an
internal ringer, the M is for modular

1702B: 10-button Touch-Tone

2702B: 12-button Touch-Tone

711B: Slide switch /push button,
two line with exclusion

712B: Turn Key, 2-line with hold
(and several other combinations)

713B: 2-line with Exclusion or
hold

2713B: Touch-tone version

CS2702BM: Touch-tone, no
illumination

2703BMG: Signature Princess

Similar Phones from Other Makers

The "Princess" name was a registered trademark of AT&T for
the distinctive oval-base desk phone, but the name is frequently misused to
identify other phones, most often the AT&T Trimline, as well as Princess clones
produced by other companies, under license from AT&T:

"Cinderella" made by Kellogg, then ITT, now Cortelco.

"Petite" made by Stromberg Carlson, later renamed Comdial, now Vertical.

"Starlite" made by Automatic Electric for the GTE
phone system (rectangular rather than oval)

"Contessa Phone" made by Northern Electric/Northern
Telecom/Nortel. Early on in the production run they used a glue for the base
pad that lost its adhesion after a few months. The base pads fell off of the
phones when they were removed from their boxes, and the phone was referred to
as the "barefoot contessa" (The Barefoot Contessa is a 1954 film about
fictional Spanish sex symbol Maria Vargas. It was written and directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz and stars Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Edmond
O'Brien.)